


Science Fair

by alessandralee



Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, Team Scorpion - Freeform, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-23
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-22 23:53:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4855415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandralee/pseuds/alessandralee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ralph wins first place at the science fair, and the team gets him something to celebrate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Science Fair

**Author's Note:**

> There were Scorpion Fandom Awards announced on tumblr last night, and I was named best family fic writer. So I'm celebrating by writing family fic.

“Be careful,” Paige can’t help but let the warning slip from her mouth as she props open the door to the garage.

“He’s like sixty-five pounds and there’s two of us,” Toby replies. “How weak do you think I am?”

“Do you want an honest answer to that?” Happy says.

Ralph, who’s being carried on their shoulders, seems amused by their antics.

“Just don’t break my son,” Paige warns.

Toby continues to look offended. 

Sylvester scurries through the door in front of them, playing Queen’s _We Are the Champions_ on his phone in Ralph’s honor.

The applause when Toby, Happy, and Ralph finally do enter the building (Toby proves Paige’s concern necessary by nearly bumping Ralph’s head into the top of the doorway) is considerably weaker than it had been at the school.

“Where’s Cabe?” Walter asks, pinpointing the issue immediately.

“He was stopping for ice cream,” Paige tells him.

“Then I guess we’ll have to start the party without him,” Toby says. “Gather ‘round.”

He and Happy slowly lower Ralph to the ground, with Toby being extra careful this time.

Sylvester pulls up a chair to sit in, and Paige moves to stand behind Ralph. Walter leans against a nearby worktable.

“On behalf of Team Scorpion,” Toby begins, “I would like to formally congratulate—“

“I thought we agreed Walter was going to make the speech,” Sylvester interrupts.

“Can’t you let me have anything?” Toby whines with an exasperated eye roll, but he does switch places with Walter.

“Congratulations to Ralph,” Walter starts over, “on an unsurprising science fair win. We all knew you’d blow everyone else out of the water, but your work also especially strong in our eyes.” Everyone claps again. “Also a special thanks to Paige, for reminding us that this was Ralph’s science fair, not ours.”

Paige looks smug. It hadn’t surprised her how eager each of her co-workers had been to help with Ralph’s project, but it had been a bit of a pain to constantly remind them that they were only supposed to assist. They had tried to be a bit more hands on than the official rules allowed.

(The again, she was almost certain Jenny Cavalli’s parents had done her entire project for her.)

“On behalf of the team,” Happy cuts in as she and Sylvester walk to a corner of the garage, “we thought it was time that Ralph gets a workspace of his own.”

Together, they lift a sheet off what Paige had assumed was some project of Walter’s.

It’s a desk, much like all of the other ones in the room, with a full workstation set up on top.

And by the way things sound, it’s now Ralph’s.

Paige is speechless. They managed to put all this together right under her nose. They put all this together for Ralph.

“What do you think?” Sylvester asks Ralph.

Carefully, Ralph walks the length of the desk, inspecting it. He takes a seat in the wheeled office chair set out in front of it, then pulls the lever to make it rise to a comfortable height.

The he reaches across the desk for a pencil, adjusting the cup of supplies so that it’s within arm’s reach. Then he scribbles on one of the clean pads of paper piled at the center.

“It’s a good setup,” he tells Sylvester. “I can definitely work with this.”

Sylvester cheers, Happy and Walter high five, and Toby ruffles Ralph’s hair affectionately.

“Do you like it, Mom?” Ralph spins in his chair to face her. She notices that his legs dangle just above the chair’s wheels.

That’s an easy question for her to answer.

“I think it’ll be a great place for you to do your homework,” she tells him.

And a great place for her to watch him do his homework. A great place for her to watch him in general. Maybe she can cut back on the hours she has Zoe Pennington babysitting him after school.

“And any more stimulating projects we can come up with,” Walter suggests, looking expectantly at Paige.

“As long as homework gets down first,” she says, looking at everyone in turn, although her warning it mostly for the adults.

After working on this science fair project, she knows they need it.

Everyone smiles; it seems this is the gesture of appreciation they were waiting for.

Cabe chooses this moment to finally join them, entering the garage with a plastic grocery bag in each hand.

“I see you started without me,” he comments.

Sylvester takes one of the grocery bags from him and empties it out on a worktable. Two cartons of ice cream, vanilla and pecan, a metal ice cream scoop. He comes back to grab the other bag. Two bottles of root beer, a sleeve of large plastic cups.

“You snooze, you loose,” Toby says unsympathetically.

“I snooze, you starve,” Cabe replies.

Toby holds his hands up in innocence, “I apologize for my thoughtlessness.”

“Sure,” Cabe knows better than to believe him.

He reaches into his suit pocket and pulls out a plastic card on a navy blue lanyard.

“For you,” he hands it to Ralph.

On it is printed the Homeland Security logo and a photo of Ralph that Paige remembers seeing on Cabe’s phone. It’s accompanied by the words ‘Ralph Dineen, Consultant.’

It’s a sweet gesture, if a little worrisome. Paige is pretty sure she’ll never get over the time Ralph nearly died trying to help the team.

As if he senses her dread, Ralph says to her, “You can hold onto it for now, Mom.”

Paige gratefully takes the badge from him. She feels a little more relieved when she reads the words printed on the back of it.

‘Only admitted under the supervision of Paige Dineen, Cabe Gallo, or other approved adult.’

Cabe whispers in her ear, “It doesn’t look like the real thing at all, but I wanted to play it safe.”

Now that she’s closer to Ralph’s new desk, Paige notices two framed photos sitting in frames. The first is of the whole team, and Megan, taken the evening they celebrated the doctors clearing Walter for work again.

The second is of her and Ralph a few years ago, one of the same ones that sits on her own desk.

She has to hold back a few tears.

Cabe seems to the be the only one who notices, and he distracts everyone by asking, “Who wants root beer floats?”

Quietly, Ralph abandons his desk to get in line for dessert. Paige follows.


End file.
